A second former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is accusing him of sexual harassment.
Charlotte Bennett, 25, who served as an executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo administration, told the New York Times the most recent episode of the Democratic governor’s alleged inappropriate behavior toward her occurred on June 5 in his Albany office.
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The former aide said Cuomo asked her a series of questions about her personal life, including whether she viewed age gaps as important to relationships. Cuomo also reportedly bemoaned his loneliness during the pandemic. Bennett said she viewed Cuomo’s questions, along with his suggestion that he’d be open to dating women in their 20s, as sexual overtures.
“I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared, and [I] was wondering how I was going to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job,” Bennett said.
Cuomo, who called Bennett “a hardworking and valued member of our team during COVID” as well as “a sexual assault survivor” in a statement to the Washington Examiner, said he only intended to serve as a “mentor” to the female staffer.
“I never made advances toward Ms. Bennett, nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate,” he said. “The last thing I would ever have wanted was to make her feel any of the things that are being reported.”
Beth Garvey, who serves as special counsel and senior adviser to the governor, said former federal judge Barbara Jones will lead an independent review into the matter.
Another former aide to Cuomo, Lindsey Boylan, first accused the 63-year-old governor of sexually harassing her. She published a Medium post on Wednesday saying that Cuomo “stepped in front of [her] and kissed [her] on the lips” as she tried to leave his New York City office. On a separate occasion, she said allegedly suggested they “play strip poker” during a flight in October 2017.
Cuomo’s office also denied those allegations.
“Ms. Boylan’s claims of inappropriate behavior are quite simply false,” Caitlin Girouard, Cuomo’s press secretary, said in a statement accompanied by flight manifests purporting to debunk Boylan’s account.
In the wake of these allegations, political figures across the ideological spectrum have called for Cuomo’s resignation or impeachment. Rep. Elise Stefanik, widely believed to be a potential challenger to the embattled governor in New York’s 2022 gubernatorial contest, demanded that the “criminal sexual predator” resign his position.
Even members of Cuomo’s own party have criticized the governor in light of the revelations. Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim, a vocal opponent of Cuomo’s March 2020 executive order permitting coronavirus-positive patients into nursing homes, called the governor a “coward who has abused his powers” after Boylan’s post was published.
“His pattern of abuse and harassment toward his aides, journalists, lawmakers, and critiques is despicable. As a lawmaker, I have the duty to hold him accountable. I will not stand down. I will stand with Lindsey Boylan,” he wrote, accusing Cuomo of “verbal abuse.”
Cuomo also must contend with growing criticism of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo’s executive order from March 25, 2020, on nursing homes, which was later reversed, was directly responsible for 1,000 additional COVID-19 deaths, according to a study by the Empire Center for Public Policy. After questions began to circulate about the governor’s directive, the administration then hid the true death toll, according to Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa.
“Basically, we froze,” DeRosa told lawmakers on a video conference call with state Democratic leaders. “Because then, we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation.”
After he posted a 23-part Twitter thread accusing Cuomo of a cover-up due to the underreporting, Kim claimed he received a phone call from the governor in which he threatened to “destroy” the assemblyman for “cross[ing] certain lines.” Peter Ajemian, Cuomo’s communications director, denied this accusation.
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Cuomo said in 2019 that he would seek a fourth term as governor in New York’s 2022 election.
